The 3am test
Crisis communications for crypto teams: what to prepare before an exploit, a depeg or regulatory news, and what the first statement should say.
Every crypto team should be able to answer one question before launch: if this goes wrong at 3am, who picks up?
Exploits, depegs and regulatory news don’t wait for office hours. The first hour decides whether the story is “the team handled it” or “the team went quiet”. Most teams lose that hour working out who is allowed to say what.
Before anything breaks
- A named owner for every kind of incident, with a deputy who has the same authority.
- Holding statements drafted in advance for the incidents you can predict.
- One channel of record, where the latest update always lives. Every other post links back to it.
- A sign-off path short enough to work at 3am. If legal review takes six hours, agree now what can go out without it.
The first statement
Facts, times and when the next update is. No adjectives.
Say what happened, as far as you know it. Say what you’ve done. Say when people will hear from you next, and then post on time even if the update is “no change”. Never guess, never speculate about funds or price, and never say “everything is fine” before you know it is.
After
When the incident is closed, publish what happened and what changed. Communities forgive incidents far more readily than silence.
We run a 24/7 line for clients and draft the first statement within the hour. If you’d rather not find out at 3am whether your team is ready, write to us now.